Since October 2023, construction projects with basements in Ho Chi Minh City, from private houses to business projects or state public investment projects, have not been licensed. According to the reporter's investigation, the cause of the "blockage" of underground space in Ho Chi Minh City stems from historical factors.
According to the provisions of the 2009 Urban Planning Law, all activities of planning, approving, constructing and exploiting urban underground space must follow the approved underground space planning. However, for many years in Ho Chi Minh City as well as most localities across the country, underground planning has been "forgotten", but mainly focused on urban planning above ground. However, for many years, Ho Chi Minh City has still assessed, approved and licensed large and small projects with basements.
Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction show that the city has more than 600 zoning plans that do not include urban underground space planning, but from 2004 to the first quarter of 2023, the city still granted construction permits to 1,600 projects with basements. However, since the end of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City has stopped granting construction permits to all projects with basements, from private houses to business projects, even public investment projects.
According to the investigation, the cause originated from the inspection, the Ministry of Construction "blew the whistle" because it believed that construction permits needed to be based on underground space planning by the end of 2023. Since then, all projects with underground space have been officially blocked.
To resolve this difficulty, on September 17, Mr. Bui Xuan Cuong, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, signed two decisions to remove obstacles in granting construction permits for projects with basements in the city.
That is, Decision 3803 adds the content of underground construction space planning to the regulations on managing the detailed urban construction planning project at a scale of 1/2,000 (zoning planning) of the existing 930ha central area of Ho Chi Minh City approved by the City People's Committee in Decision No. 6708/2012.
In addition, Decision 3804 adds the content of underground construction space planning to the management regulations according to the 1/5,000 scale zoning plans, 1/2,000 scale, and 1/2,000 scale detailed construction plans that have been approved in the city.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee directs that within 15 days from the date this decision is approved, the Department of Planning and Architecture and the People's Committees of districts, and the Management Boards of urban functional areas of the city are responsible for publicly announcing the content of this adjustment according to regulations.
During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties or problems or if it is necessary to add more content about underground construction space planning to the regulations on management of zoning planning projects to suit actual conditions, the People's Committees of districts, towns and related units shall send their opinions to the Department of Planning and Architecture for synthesis, reporting and proposing to the City People's Committee for consideration and decision.
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City also assigned the People's Committee of Thu Duc City to study the content of underground construction space planning of this decision, to consider the decision to implement the addition of underground construction space planning content to the approved management regulations (or need to establish new ones) according to the zoning planning projects at a scale of 1/5,000, 1/2,000, detailed construction planning at a scale of 1/2,000 that have been approved by competent authorities (still legally valid) in Thu Duc City, according to the authority prescribed in Resolution No. 98.
